“… central to the theory was the ‘deterritorializing’ of
territorities as Germans invaded lands (Poland, Czechoslovakia etc.) and
removing peoples of ‘impure’ origin; and Christaller in ‘reterritorializing’
these lands with ‘legitimate’ German peoples. In short the theories of Christaller were
concerned with “space and, more fundamentally, the formulation of a larger,
guiding spatial theory, was central to achieving Nazi objectives during the
Third Reich.”

Whenever I am talking to a group of 1970’s geographers I can usually
get immediate cognition and a degree of nostalgia if I mention the spatial theories
of Walter Christaller. As geographers we were fed a diet of Central Place Theory and
spatial arrangement across rural landscapes. For many of us it was our introduction to the spatial and
the wonders of geographical patterns and trends.
However few of us questioned the agenda of the geographer (in fact
scientist) who developed the theory. Such a scientific spatial theory had a
degree of synergy in the 1970’s with geography’s desire to be taken seriously
as a science, with a degree of theories and formulas to explain the spatial
world. However, Christaller’s theories is really a wonderful example of how spatial
technology and the understanding of the spatial can be used for the wrong reasons.
As a previous Spatialworlds posting indicated in regards to spatial technology,
we should not blindly accept technology as for the benefit of all but it can
have a dark side of invasiveness and in the case of Christaller, an aid to resettlement
and human displacement.

What the
goodness am I talking about? Is not Central Place Theory just an idea to help
us understand the spatial landscape? Not
quite! Christaller was a paid up Nazi in
1940 (apparently his Nazi membership documents show him as a very early member)
when he was working on his theories. The Nazi’s funded his work in the early
1940’s for the purpose of efficiency of resettlement of the “living space” to
the east which was to be opened up by the displacement of the Poles and
Russians created by the German conquests.

Christaller’s theory of Central Place has recently been
described in the Annals of the Association of American
Geographers as Dark Nazi Geographies.

“Central place theory is a spatial theory in urban geography
that attempts to explain the reasons behind the distribution patterns, size,
and number of cities and towns around the world. It also attempts to provide a
framework by which those areas can be studied both for historic reasons and for
the locational patterns of areas today.”

What makes much of this revelation of ‘Christallian’ agenda astounding to me
is that not once in all the years of being taught (and teaching) Christaller
was the issue of agenda raised and that the theory had any murky connections. Recently
I came across a retired university geographer who did his Masters work on
Christaller – he looked incredulously at me when I asked him how he felt about
the dark Nazi geography of Christaller.

Just backtracking a little, here is a summary of the life of Christaller and
his work.

Christallers ‘central place theory’ of human settlement was developed when
he was a member of the Nazi Party and served in
Konrad Meyer’s Planning and Soil Department. At the end of the 1930s he held a
short-lived academic appointment, but then joined the Nazi
Party in 1940. He moved into government service, in Himmler's SS-Planning and Soil Office, during
the Second World War.
Christaller’s task was to draw up plans for reconfiguring the economic
geography of Germany's
eastern conquests ("General plan of the East") – primarily Czechoslovakia and Poland,
and if successful, Russia
itself. Christaller was given special charge of planning occupied Poland, and he
did so using his central place theory as an explicit guide.

At the centre of applying the perverted biopolitical logic
of National Socialism required the military accomplishment and bureaucratic
management of two interrelated spatial processes: deterritorialization and
reterritorialization. Deterritorialization involved moving non-Germanized
Germans (mainly Jews and Slavs) off conquered Eastern lands to create an “empty
space” that was then “reterritorialized” by the settlement of “legitimate”
Germans (although often not German citizens). Although many German academics
were involved in designing and implementing these spatial strategies, Walter
Christaller brought his peculiar spatial imaginary of formal geometry and
place-based rural romanticism in planning the “empty space” of the East after
non-Germanized inhabitants were removed. His central place theory re-created
the Nazis' territorial conquests in the geographical likeness of the German
homeland

Ironically after the War Christaller joined the Communist Party
and became politically active. In addition, he devoted himself to the geography of tourism. From 1950 forward, his
Central Place Theory was used to restructure municipal relationships and
boundaries in the Federal Republic
of Germany and the system is still in place today. In 1950 Walter
Christaller founded theGerman Association of Applied Geography (DVAG).The Walter Christaller Award for Applied Geography is named after him to
this day.

Despite the dark history of Christaller’s spatial theory of central
places, it is still used today to give meaning to space and settlement –
maybe a use for good despite its origin
as a servant of the Nazi’s. As described by
the Smart Earth site, the work of Christaller still has a role to play as we
try to make sense of space.

As Christaller said:

“People have become too easily satisfied with slogans about
the power that is to be found in a space, or that emanates from it, about the
narrowness of space, the domination of space, the magic of space. Space is not
a sorcerer or a supernatural being." - Walter Christaller

“Some are new, and some have been around awhile, but all have consistently
been those resources that have fostered inquiry-driven, spatially-oriented,
project-based education using GIS.”Joseph Kerski, Esri Education Manager

As I was about to start planning my geography courses for this year, our GIS
colleague in the US, Joseph Kerski posted his favourite 20 GIS/Geography
orientated sites. Thanks Joseph, you have provided me (and others) with a great
list to work with as we look for quality and engaging sites for studnet use. I have selected 11 of
these sites to start my geographical planning for 2013. These 11 sites provide GIS
platforms, data, visualisations, imagery, videos, lessons, activities and Web
2.0 capacity to communicate with other spatial educators. These web resources and sites I have previously posted as my favourite on Spatialworlds should keep me
busy putting together my courses for the next few weeks. Gee, we are so lucky these days with such
great resources, free and only a click away.

Change Matters:http://changematters.esri.com/compare
Examine landscape changes resulting from natural and human causes using
historical and current Landsat satellite imagery from NASA/USGS shown in a
side-by-side online GIS from Esri.

Worldmapper:http://www.worldmapper.org
I have always valued the effectiveness of teaching with cartograms, and
this site allows you to create cartograms and analyze spreadsheets for
hundreds of variables by country. It also allows you to download the data
as spreadsheets and bring them into ArcGIS for Desktop for further
analysis.

ArcGIS Online:http://www.arcgis.com
As my colleagues and I have written and created videos about for the past
several years, Esri’s ArcGIS Online allows you to make your own customized
maps, analyze thousands of data sets from local to global scale, map your
own field-collected data, create map-based presentations, save and share
your maps with others, and much more.

Geocaching:http://geocaching.com
Real-world outdoor treasure hunting game using hidden containers on the
landscape requiring spatial thinking and GPS to discover them.

Esri Education Community:http://edcommunity.esri.com
Connect with other educators using GIS in the curriculum; discover
lessons, data, videos, blog posts, and other documents supporting spatial
analysis in the curriculum.

Geospatial Revolution:http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/
Professionally-produced series of videos illustrating the use of
geotechnologies in society, and the importance of spatial analysis and GIS
for 21st Century decision making.

NASA Earth Observations:http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Search.html
NASA Earth Observations is a set of georeferenced images for the planet on
oceans, atmosphere, energy, land, and life, able to be examined online
over space and time, and downloaded into a GIS for further analysis.

“…if you look
at the centre, where the Eastern lights give way to the empty Western plains,
there's a mysterious clump of light there that makes me wonder.”

A recent satellite image of the United States highlighted the power of remote sensing to expose layers of a geographical story for
the geography classroom. Such a story would be a great basis for a case study (or
a place based exemplar as the new expression is being popularised in the UK)
with physical and human perspectives. The satellite image aboveof the US shows a
significant glow in North Dakota. The interesting thing is
that this area is a lowly populated area of the US with no big cities. As it
turns out, this glow is fields of gas flares from the new oil fields in North
Dakota made possible by the controversial process of fracking. As one begins to
explore what all this means, layers of the geogstory are exposed. I do not
intend this posting to be a comprehensive expose of fracking and US oil generation,
rather a geographical examination of the glow, only able to be seen through
remote sensing technology.

The remote
sensing storyIn the Suomi NPP
Satellite/NASA Earth Observatory satellite photo of the Earth
below, you can clearly see the Dakota fields blazing in the grasslands as North
America rolls by. The glow in North Dakota, on some nights, is almost as bright
as the aurora borealis.

The change
storySix years
ago, the region in North Dakota was close to empty. The few ranchers who lived there
produced wheat, alfalfa, oats and corn. The U.S. Geological Survey knew there
were oildeposits underground, but deep
down, 2 miles below the surface. It wasn't till the 21st
Century that the industry developed a way to pull that oil to the surface at a
cost that made it practical. Fracking means pumping water and chemicals down
pipes, fracturing the rock, releasing the oil. The technology is hugely controversial.

The
Environment storyWhen oil
comes to the surface, it often brings natural gas with it, and according to
North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources, 29 percent of the natural gas
now extracted in North Dakota is flared off. Gas isn't as profitable as oil,
and the energy companies don't always build the pipes or systems to carry it
away. For a year (with extensions), North Dakota allows drillers to burn gas,
just let it flare. There are now so many gas wells burning fires in the North Dakota
night, the fracking fields can be seen from deep space. What is so sad about
that is that it probably used to be one of the best places in the world to look
up and see the stars. There seems to be no end in sight to this energy
"boom" mentality.

The geomorphological
resource story The Bakkenshale oil field is part of a huge formation covering approximately 200,000
square miles. It covers the northwest corner of North Dakota, the
northeast corner of Montana and a significant chunk of Saskatchewan, Canada, as
the image beneath indicates. "In
1995, the U.S. Geological Survey surveyed the Bakken area in which they found
roughly 151 million barrels of recoverable oil. Since then, drilling
technology has improved causing reserve estimates to spike up between 6-24 billion barrels of
recoverable oil." - So what isfracking? Contrary to what most people think, oil is not found in vast pools
beneath the surface; it’s found in solid rock formations. In order for rock to
yield economically produceable oil, it must have two qualities: porosity and
permeability. Shale is one of the most common sedimentary rocks. Sometimes it
contains an abundance of oil, but it’s not permeable, meaning oil and natural
gas cannot easily flow through the rock for extraction. To extract oil and
natural gas from shale, a well is drilled into a shale formation. Rather than
drilling straight down, the well kicks off laterally. A high pressure pump is
then used to break the rock (this is where ‘fracking’ gets its name, to
hydraulically fracture the rocks is colloquially, ‘fracking’). The gaps in the
rock created by the pressure allow the oil and gas to escape into the well
bore.

The
pollution storyIn western
North Dakota the light pollution is so bad that people get confused and think
they are driving towards the sunrise in the early hours of the day.
Environmentalists claim that fracking can contaminate the water table, that
fracking fluid is harmful to water supplies and that fracking causes
earthquakes. Such views are at the core of the pro/con fracking environmental
debate.

The energy story

The lights
are a startlingly new oil and gas field — night time evidence of an oil boom
created by a technology called fracking. Those lights are rigs, hundreds of them, lit
at night, or fiery flares of natural gas. One hundred and fifty oil companies,
big ones, little ones, wildcatters, have flooded this region, drilling up to
eight new wells every day on what is called the Bakken formation. Altogether,
they are now producing 660,000 barrels a day — double the output two years ago
— so that in no time at all, North Dakota is now the second-largest oil
producing state in America. Only Texas produces more, and those lights are a
sign that this region is now on fire. This oil rush is so sudden, so enormous.
The Bakken fields are helping to improve energy security for the US. It is
estimated that every day drillers in North Dakota "burn off enough gas to
heat half a million homes."

The economic
story

North Dakota
now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. More than 41,000 workers
got jobs there between 2008 and 2012. Only seven years ago, the U.S. was
importing 60 percent of its oil. Now imports are down to 42 percent. However
many locals consider that as they sit on billion dollar surpluses year after
year the government do nothing to build up the infrastructure or protect the
environment. North Dakota law says that flares are subject to taxes and
royalties after one year, even if the gas isn't being sold.

The social
storyMuch of the
commentary indicates that state regulators seem less than energetic when
farmers call to complain about poisons in the air and water. Many farmers in
North Dakota can't prevent drillers from drilling — even if they'd like to.
Decades ago, the rights to the minerals below those farms were separated from
the rights to the land itself — which is why today, energy companies can move
in, create drilling pads where they please, move in trucks and workers, without
the farmers' consent. In some places, North Dakota feels like Texas in the
early 20th century, when cattlemen fought the oil men. This time it's corn
folks versus oil folks. Tempers are rising.The
elementary schools have tripled in enrolment in the past two years. They don't
want to stifle the money coming in from taxes because they need it to build up
their infrastructure. However, allowing the companies to do as they please with
little to no accountability will make it difficult to preserve some beautiful
country in the priaries of North Dakota..So, just one
satellite image with an unusual glow can lead to such a rich place based
exemplar (case study) for the geography classroom. This is agreat example of how remote
sensing can create a geogstory with so many layers to unpeel.

Email contactmanning@chariot.net.auWhere am I??Perth: S: 31º 57' E: 115º 52'AGTA 2013: A critical event for geography in AustraliaAGTA 2013 in Perth went very well. As mentioned in the conference materials, the Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) is the peak body for professional geography teachers in Australia and considers that the conference will provide
a great opportunity for geography teachers and others to learn and discuss all things related to geographical education in schools. The
conference titled, ‘Geography’s New Frontier’ was a crucial event in relation to the
introduction of the Australian Curriculum for geography in 2013. The work of
AGTA is closely aligned to the development of the Australian Curriculum for Geography and AGTA saw this conference as pivotal to 2013 being the year of quality implementation of the geography curriculum. To provide input on implementation matters our two keynote speakers from the UK,Professor David Lambert (past CEO of the UK
Geography Association) and Professor Simon Catling (Primary Geography
specialist from BrookesOxfordUniversity) were fantastic to listen to and work with.
Videos of their presentations are on the AGTA website. Their experiences in the UK with the implementation of the National Geography Curriculum were very enlightening ... and we will learn from their mistakes and successes.

Many of the other workshop at AGTA 2013 will be posted on the AGTA site soon after the conference.Feel free to look at and use these presentations in your professional learning activities, just acknowledge them as presentations by those presenting at AGTA 2013.

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Who am I?

I have taught history, geography and civics and citizenship in the South Australian education system since 1976. I have been actively involved in the promotion of geography and history over the years, in particular the use of spatial technology in schools. I am a Past Chair of the Australian Geography Teachers' Association (Chair 2008-13) and Immediate Past President of the Australian Alliance of Associations in Education (2013-present). During the development of the Australian Curriculum: Geography I was a member of the ACARA Advisory Panel (2009-2013) and Executive Director of the ESA GeogSpace project. From 2007-2011 and in 2015 I was the Manager for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) in the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD). Presently I am a Teaching Academic in HaSS Education at the University of South Australia and the Manager for the Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize in DECD.